banner image

Climate and emissions

Climate change has the potential to affect every aspect of our lives, from the health and integrity of natural systems, to economic prosperity and community health and wellbeing.

Responding effectively to climate change involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions and being ready to adapt to climate change impacts as they occur.

Council has been actively addressing climate change for many years and is involved in various initiatives such as the Cities Power Partnership Program and solar power roll-out.

The Eurobodalla Climate Action Plan 2022-32 replaces the previous Emissions Reduction Plan. This new plan includes the targets for Council to

  • reduce Council's emissions from the 2005-06 baseline by 80% by 2030
  • achieve net zero emissions by 2040
  • source 100% of Council’s electricity demand from renewable energy by 2030.

The Climate Action Plan 2022-2032 sets targets and identifies actions for Council and the community across key areas of sustainability: energy, transport, built environment, waste, water, biodiversity, agriculture, regional economy, natural hazards, and Council responsiveness.

This plan identifies how Council will:

  • further reduce its own carbon footprint
  • make its operations and service delivery more resilient to the impacts of climate change
  • support households and businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build climate resilience.

The Climate Action Plan includes 58 actions:

  • 40 actions for Council's operations
  • 18 actions to support the community and businesses.

For Council operations, these actions will:

  • reduce emissions from the 2005-06 baseline by 80% by 2030
  • achieve net zero emissions by 2040
  • source 100% of Council’s electricity demand from renewable energy by 2030.

Council will also support the wider community to achieve at least equal to the NSW Government's targets:

  • net zero emissions by 2050 for Eurobodalla
  • 50% reduction in emissions by 2030 for Eurobodalla.

Download

After adopting the Climate Action Plan, Council established the Climate Change Advisory Committee (the committee).

This committee provides advice to Council and the community about how to effectively deliver the actions set out in the Climate Action Plan. The committee also identifies and advises on emerging issues and opportunities in climate change.

More information

Council has recently signed a 10-year agreement to source the bulk of its energy from renewables from July 2021. The Power Purchase Agreement was secured with renewable energy company Simply Energy, ENGIE, with help from Renewable Energy Hub.

Electricity generated by solar farms located at Parkes and Griffith, and from wind farms in the New England area due to come online in 2024, will supply 80 per cent of Council’s total electricity load for larger energy use sites such as the Moruya administration building, pools, libraries, water and sewer pump stations, treatment plants and our streetlights.

The move will reduce Council’s carbon emissions the equivalent to removing 1,000 cars from the road per annum. Council is now well on course to achieving our target of sourcing 100 per cent of Council’s energy from renewables by 2030 and reducing our CO2 emissions.

Council will continue to look for other opportunities to supply renewable energy for the remaining 20 per cent of Council's facilities, which are our smaller sites that use less power, like community halls and public toilets.

In 2013 Council began a sustainability project to target energy use in 50 community buildings, including Narooma Library and Hanging Rock Basketball Stadium. The process involved generating an energy report and retrofitting some water and energy efficient tools to help reduce energy use. The report highlighted potential works that Council could do to reduce operational costs further.

The project aimed to reduce CO2 by 365 tonnes and water use by 3,395 kL per year.

Twenty per cent of electricity used by Council is sourced from renewable energy. We have installed over 3,000 solar panels at 28 Council facilities across Eurobodalla Shire. The solar panels can produce over 750kW of power when the sun shines.

Using solar power saves over 1000 tonnes of carbon dioxide and over $180,000 a year in energy costs.

Council will continue to install proven, economically and technically feasible renewal energy technologies.

Eurobodalla Shire Council has joined other councils around Australia in pledging to cut energy emissions as part of the Cities Power Partnership Program.

An initiative of the Climate Council, the partnership brings together cities and towns around Australia that are leading the way in cutting their emissions. The partnership gives Council the chance to work with like-minded councils on new ways to reduce emissions, while making financial savings at the same time.

Council has pledged five key actions to reduce its climate impact:

  1. adopt best practice energy efficiency measures across all Council buildings, and support community facilities to adopt these measures
  2. power Council operations by renewable energy, and set targets to increase the level of renewable power for Council operations over time
  3. roll-out more energy-efficiency measures, including LED streetlights
  4. identify opportunities to turn waste to energy
  5. install renewable energy (solar PV and battery storage) on Council buildings.

More information

You can find out more about the Cities Power Partnership and Council's involvement in the program:

NSW plan to reduce emissions

The Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure has released the Net Zero Plan Stage 1: 2020-2030. The Plan is the foundation for NSW’s action on climate change and goal to reach net zero emissions by 2050. It outlines the NSW Government’s plan to grow the economy, create jobs and reduce emissions over the next decade.

Eurobodalla Council is working with the Canberra Region Joint Organisation (CRJO) and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, to deliver this plan locally. Council continues to implement a range of actions such as:

  • sourcing the bulk of its energy from renewables through a Power Purchase Agreement it secured in 2021
  • supporting the Eurobodalla in the transition to electric vehicles with the recently adopted Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Strategy (the Strategy).

Read the Strategy

Watch

Eurobodalla Council features in a series of videos about NSW councils taking action on emissions:

Contact us

If you need more information about climate change or emissions reduction, please contact our Natural Resources and Sustainability Coordinator, Heidi Thomson: